Support for furniture



June 6, 1933. DE FoREs-r' ROE 1,912,728

SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE Filed March 5, 1950 V Egg Patented June 6, 1933UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE DE roansr non, or, ELYRIA, OHIO, ASSUIGNOREOTHE COLSON co umna or ELYRIA,

01110, A CORPORATION or onro SUPPORT FOR FURNITURE Application filedMarch 5,

This invention relates to supports for furniture.

Various articles of furniture, such as .desks, tablesand the like, whichstand upon 7 legs, tend to mar the surface of the floor,

article of furniture are not of exactly the same length, the article offurniture will rock objectionably on the longer legs. Also, when thelegs are of unequal length, the weight of the article of furniture beingcon- 1 centrated on the longer legs tends to warp the article offurniture, and where the longer legs are supported directly on thefloor, it tends to augment and intensify the marring action thereof.

It is one of theobjects ofthis invention to provide a furniture supportupon which the le s of an. article 9f furniture may rest and which willfunction to prevent marring of the supporting floor surface, and whichwill also function to compensate for furniture legs ofdifferent lengthand, therefore,

Another object is to provide a furniture support onwhich the ends of thelegs of an article of furniture may be placed and constructed or formedfrom yieldingly resisting,

preferably resilient material the upper surface of which is adapted'tobedepressed by the weight. of the article of furniture resting thereon.

, Another object is to provide a support for the legs of an article offurniture formed or constructed from resilientor yieldingly resistantmaterial, in which that portion of i the support upon which a leg of thearticle of furniture rests is so shaped or has such cross-sectionalconfiguration that the area of contact witha leg of the article offurniture H will vary in proportionto the Weight of the article offurniture.

Another ob ect is to provide a support for the legs of an article offurniture adapted to automatically compensate for furniture a legs ofdifferent lengths, and/or for uneven to obviate the objections thereofmentioned 1930. Serial No. 433,474.

floor surfaces to support the article of furniture by all of its legsand prevent rocking thereof on a pair of legs.

Another objectisto provide a furniture support composed of yieldinglyresistant or resilient material, so formed that the weight supportedthereby causes the material on portions within the periphery of the areaof contact of the support with the floor to be depressed, whereby thesupport is prevented from imprinting or, impressing its pcripheral.outline on relatively soft floors or floor coverings, such as linoleum.

Another object to provide a support for furniture which will be cheap toconstruct and efficient in operation.

Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which thisinvention pertains.

My invention is fully disclosed in the following description taken inconnection with the accompanying drawing in which- Fig. 1 is aperspective view showing a furniture support of my invention; L

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view not in perspective. a

Figs. 3 and 4 are views showing the operation of my invention underrespectively differentconditions.

As shown in the drawing, the furniture support of my invention is moldedor otherwise formed in a single piece from yieldingly resistant orresilient 'material. The preferred material is rubber of a softness orcompliancy adapted to the weight of the furniture to be supported and aswill be further discussed hereinafter.

.The support comprises a main body portion 1, which in the formillustrated is rectangular in plane and having a base surface 2 uponwhich the support may rest on a floor. The outer side walls 33 of thebody are preferably inclined inwardly upwardly so that the generalconfiguration of the support is that of a truncated four-sided pyramid.

The upper surface of the body 1 is depressed to form a cavity bounded.by walls or heads 5; The floor 6 of the receptacle 4 is converginglyinclined from the walls 510' toward a depressed central point 7. Thefloor 6 may be variously formed, but I prefer to form it of four planetriangular surfaces 8, 8.

Although in the preferred form of my invention, the support is ofrectangular outline, thus resulting in a rectangular wall or rim 5 andtriangular surfaces 8, it will be understood, particularly in View ofthe func tions performed'by the support and to be presently described,that the support may be made of circular or other variant form and thebottom 6 of the receptacle portion 4 may be conical or of other form,the essential feature being that the floor 6 will slope.

Preferably, the body 1 is not reenforced by metal or other inserts andthe bottom 6 is adapted to directly receive the end of a leg of thearticle to be supported so that the yielding resistance of the materialof the body 1 may respond to the weight of the article supported,whether the weight be distributed over a large area of the bottom 6 orwhether it'be concentrated on a relatively small area thereof.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, the furniture support ofmy invention isshown supporting the square leg of a piece of furniture such as a desk.In F 3, the leg 10 represents a leg of the desk which happens to belonger than the other legs thereof which for any other reason supports aweight greater than that supported by other of the legs, and the leg 11of Fig. 4 is a leg shorter than other of the legs such as the leg 10, orwhich for any other reason supports a relatively lighter weight. In Fig.3, the lower end of the leg 10 rests upon the bottom 6 of the supportand depresses the resilient material thereof.

Due to the downwardly inwardly sloping form of the wall 6, the squareencof the leg depresses the surface of the body 1 of the support a greateramount towards the border of the leg and surface and by diminishingamounts toward the center thereof.

The total amount of the compression is indi-- cated by the distance 0;,between the top edge of the rim 5 of the support and the final lowermostposition of the leg end.

As will be observed in Fig. 4, where the leg 11 is shorter or the weightthereon is lighter, the distance 1], measured the same as in Fig. 3, isless than the distance 00.

In this connection, it will be observed that when the desk leg is placedupon the support when installing the same, the end of the leg willgradually depress the surface of the body 1 until the Weight on the legis supported thereby and as the depression takes place, the area ofcontact with the end of the leg progressively increases inwardly fromthe periphery of the leg end. Also, it

will be observed that the depression of the surface of the body 1 isgreatest at the periphery of the leg end and least or actually zero atthe center of the leg where the leg end is actually out of contact withthe point 7 of the support.

The action of the support in thus compensating for legs of differentlengths and weights of different amounts on the different legs is quitedifferent from that which would result if the body 1 of the support wereof uniform vertical thickness. With the bottom 6 of the supportdownwardly and inwardly sloping, a relatively slight pressure of the legend thereon will depress the material of the support and the pressurerequired to depress it gradually but rapidly increases at greater andgreater amounts of depression so that the support automatically andsensitively adapts itself to legs of different lengths and to differentweights thereon, compensating for such irregularities, and supports thedesk or like article of furniture in an ideal manner.

In Fig. 4 I have illustrated also the action of my improved furnituresupport when resting on relatively soft surfaces such as linoleum orlike .floor coverings. By making the base 2 of the support relativclylarge and by permitting the body 1 to respond freely. to pressurewherever -applied on the bottom 6, the resultant pressure on the base 2is maximum within the periphery thereof and is minimum or zero at theperiphery thereof.

Thus, practically no weight is carried by the support at its peripheryand, therefore,

in the first instance not unsightly and secondly will in a short timeentirely disappear.

My'invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shownand described. Many modifications may be made therein without departingfrom the spirit of my invention or sacrificing the advantages thereof.

For example, although I have shown and described the floor 6 as upwardlyconcave, many of the advantages of my invention may be retained byforming the fioor upwardly convex. When so formed the weight of thefurniture leg when applied to the support will depress the floor at thecenter thereof and as the Weight becomes greater and greater, the areaof contact will become greater and greater progressively outwardly fromthe center, being maximum in the center and minimum at the periphery ofthe furniture leg.

I claim:

1. In a support for articles of furniture, a body portion of generallyrectangular contour in horizontal planes composed of yieldinglyresistant material adapted to rest upon the floor and on its uppersurface provided with a socket portion for receiving the leg of anarticle of furniture to be supported, the socket portion having a socketbottom wall having upwardly outwardly extending plane surfaces mutuallyjoined along dihedral angles 2. In a support for articles of furniture,a body portion of generally rectangular contour in horizontal planescomposed of resilient material adapted to rest upon the floor and on itsupper surface provided with a socket portion for receiving the leg of anarticle of furniture to be sup orted, the

socket portion havinga socket ottom upwardly concave and comprisingplane surfaces mutually joined along dihedral angles.

3. In a support for articles of furniture,

a body portion composed of resilient Inaterial adapted to rest upon thefloor and on itsupper surface provided with a socket portion forreceiving the leg of an article of furniture to be supported, the socketportion having a socket bottomupwarclly concave and comprising planesurfaces mutually joined along dihedral angles.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature this 28th day of.February, 1930.

"DE FOREST ROE.

